A known type of display/dispenser box used to store products during transportation is formed in two parts. A dispensing part, or tray, holds a product (e.g. sachets) to be dispensed. The tray has a rectangular base with a wall upstanding around its edge. The wall includes a tall back face for supporting the product and a short front face which allows the product to be seen; the front and back faces are joined by side walls which confine the product in the tray. The side walls may have inward flanges with undulating edges extending into the tray from their top edges to hold the product upright. The tray is assembled by hand from a blank. To increase the speed of this process, the base of the tray has a crash lock base. This is relatively costly to manufacture.
After the tray is erected, a corrugated cover is inserted into the tray and it is loaded with a product. This is also done by hand. The corrugated cover is usually a stiff piece of board having a top surface lying over the product and two opposing side walls depending from two edges of the top surface which fit in between the product and the side walls of the tray to abut the base of the tray.
The product is also inserted by hand in small amounts; this can be difficult, especially if the product is quite dense and there is little room between it and the side walls of the tray.
After loading the product, the whole package is shrink-wrapped in plastics sheeting to keep the cover together with the tray and to prevent contamination or spillage of the product. The cover is inserted into the tray to give the structure additional strength. This allows many such structures to be stacked on top of one another without the use of an outer case. This arrangement is convenient for transportation.
However, the known box described above has a number of disadvantages.
Firstly, the assembly and loading of the box prior to shrink-wrapping is all done by hand. This is labour-intensive and slow.
Secondly, the assembled box needs to be shrink-wrapped to be of use. Shrink-wrapping adds another layer of material to the product, which incurs further expense. Moreover, shrink-wrap is not an environmentally friendly material and requires a sharp instrument to remove it.